Plato and the Perfect Society essays

Plato and the Perfect Society essays It seems that all societies are always striving for perfection. From the beginning of time, people have always worked to be the best. Sometimes, wars had to be fought. Other times compromises had to be made. But in the end, it all came down to one concept. Every community, every city, every nation was looking for perfection. In his Republic, Plato feels that he knows how to reach this ultimate goal. He suggests a society with the best government where all people are happy and everything is equal. Plato's Republic gives a method for reproduction in this infallible society. Plato's plan almost looks as though it is quite similar to the concept of eugenics in modern day society. Plato's idea of reproduction may become a reality; yet it is headed in a much more dangerous direction than Plato ever thought possible. Just as Plato felt so many years ago, government involvement is critical in this issue today. With recent developments in genetic research, the communities of today are in danger of eugenics. The human genome project is one reason for this. This project did an incredible thing. It coded for every single gene in human DNA. We now know what traits are linked with what genes. This is a wonderful discovery in the area of diseases. Scientists will be able to track diseases and find cures; however, it also opens the door to new genetic ideas. Parents are learning much more about their children before they are even born causing an increase the number of abortions because parents discover that their child will have a fatal disease or a disability. They feel it is better to end the child's life than have it live this way. And this is only the beginning. Scientists are working towards a new genetic test where parents are able to choose the traits of their future children. In this test, parents will give a fertilized egg to scientists who will then tell them all of their ch ild's traits. After that, parents will ha...